My sister was here for the holidays and she brought a kumihimo cording kit. I’ve wanted to make one but didn’t want to get into buying the supplies for another hobby so I’ve been putting it off. Here’s a few that she made. I added the end caps and clasps. These cords make up quickly so she made several in just a few days.

The one on the right is the fibers that came with her kit. The one on the left is from stuff I had already. I had some fringe-like yarn that made the little wisps of fiber stick out all over. I want to make a beaded cord someday.

Due to the hot weather and not being able to make beads in the garage, I spent the weekend making leaf pins. Here’s three that I finished:

I did do another one but messed it up right at the end. I hate when that happens. I’m still learning how to work the sewing machine so it takes me a while to do all the sewing. I am picking up some speed but I’m still really slow. I suppose failures will happen when I’m learning. Don’t have to like it though.

I got around to dyeing more wool felt last night. This is the first time I tried using Kool-Aid. It’s kind of “kool” as the colors are already mixed up and there is citric acid already in it so it’s supposed to work without having to add vinegar. The acid opens up the fibers to the dye. I still soaked my felt in lukewarm water and vinegar prior to dyeing to open up the fibers and saturate the felt. Using the Kool-Aid crystals made it really easy and probably a little less messy. After sprinkling the Kool-Aid on my felt, I sprayed it with some water to wet the crystals and disperse the color. Then I steamed my pieces. I have a big steamer that I bought eons ago when I was doing machine knitting. It works great for setting the dye. I steamed the pieces for less than 30 seconds, then took them over to the sink to wash out the Kool-Aid residue, along with any dye. I was totally surprised when no color came out. None at all. While washing, I felted my pieces at the same time by rolling the felt into a ball and rubbing the ball between my hands. Then I laid them out to dry. Here’s the results.

I’m still trying to figure out how to get purple. My attempts haven’t even come close. I did get some purple on the bottom pink piece at the top but I don’t know what I did. This is the piece I was trying to use up the Kool-Aid packets I already opened. Guess it’s back to more experiments…..

I’m getting all excited about trying out new things with my mom’s sewing machine. While these things aren’t complex, I’m finding it fascinating that I can even sew.

I found my mom’s stash of variegated thread!! And all the solid shiny ones too!! Just that little bit of shine makes the colors pop. I’m getting better using the zigzag feature, though I still can’t make a round dot. One thing that makes sewing on the felt difficult is I can’t find anything that is erasable that marks felt. I had to do the spirals on the left piece by sight. Makes it way more stressful. I suppose I could baste the lines on but that would be too time consuming. Hope something pops into my head.